Apparatus for regulating the temperature of superheated steam



B. BROIDO. APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE TEMPERATURE OF SUPERHEATEDSTEAM.

APPLICATIOII FILED DEC. 7, I91?- I Patented Aug. 31

1920. -S HEET I.

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B. sRomo. APPARATUS FOR R EGULATING THE TEMPERATURE OF ,SUPERHEATEDSTEAM.

APPLICATION'FILED DEC. T 19!?- A 1,351,465 V Patented Aug. 31, 1920.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN BROIDO, on NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR. T0 LOCOMOTIVEsurnnnniirnn COMPANY, on NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION or DELAWARE. I

APPARATUS FOR REG-ULATING THE-TEMPERATURE OF SUPERHEATED STEAM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 31, 1920.

Application filed December 7, 1917. Serial No. 206,115.

' To all whom it may concern.-

in Apparatus for Regulating the Temperature of Superheated Steam, ofwhich the following is a specification.

The use of superheated steam is becoming more and more extensive, evenin this country, and practice bears out the theory that I the higher thedegree of superheat the more efliciently the steam can be used.Fluctuations, however, in the degree of superheat are bound to occurwhen the steam is led directly from the superheater to the point ofconsumption; and where a plant is working near the upper safe limit oftem erature, an u ward fluctuation may be rat er serious.

nder such circumstances fluctuations are particularly objectionable, buteven where the degree of superheat used is only moderate, constancy inthe amount of superheat is highly desirable. I am aware that severalways have been proposed to regulate the defies of superheat, so as tokeep it constant.

0st of them include the injection of water into the steam, mingling itmore or less intimately in the form of a spray with the steam. Butexperiments seem to show conclusively that under such conditions waterand superheatedsteam may exist simultaneously in a pipe. The low heatconductivity of superheated steam probably accounts for this phenomenon.Danger may therefore exist in a regulator of such a type, of water beingactually carried over to the engine,

possibly even in dangerous quantities; and

in any event the purpose of injecting the water is not fully realized.

The object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism which willbe capable of regulating the temperature of superheated steamlwithoutincurring the above difliculties; which will permit of rapid andaccurate regulation and do so without sacrificingthe efficiency ofeither the boiler or the superheater; and which will be simple inconstruction and easy of maintenance, andmay be readily installed inboilers already existing as well as'in boilers to be built.

The invention will be readily understood from a perusalof the followingspecification in connection with the accompanying drawings. In thelatter, Figure 1 is a side elevation of my invention shown applied to aboiler of a usual design, parts being broken away and the drum beingshown in section on line I I of Fi 2; Fig. 2 is a. sectional view online II-I of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail central sectional viewof one of the joints; Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic representation ofautomatic mechanism for operating my invention; while Fig. 5 is adiagrammatic sectional View of an arrangement using two of myregulators.

Fig. 1 shows my invention applied to a water tube boiler of the Babcockand Wilcoxtype, but it will be evident from the description whichfollows that the device may be applied to boilers of almost any type.Reference numeral 1 designates the steam and water drum, the averagewater level being indicated by the dotted line 2. The water tubes areshown at 3, while 4; isthe superheater.v This may be of any design or inany location preferred. It is supplied with steam from the steam andwater drum 1 by means of the pipe 4*, while 5 is the main to which steamis delivered from the superheater 4. Instead ofbeing carried directly tothe engine or other point desired, the steam is now first carriedthrough, my regulator, designated generally by numeral 6.

This regulator comprises a set of tubes 7 the two ends of which aresecured to heads 8 and 9 respectively. These heads are bolted to flanges10 and 11 of elbows 12 and 13 respectively. These two elbows are in turnconnected to elbows 14 and 15 by means of a joint illustrated in Fig. 3.Elbow-14 is connected to pipe 5 by means of the short pipe length 16,and elbow 15 is connected to pipe 17 which carries the steam to thepoint where it is to be used.

The flexible joint is shown in Fig. 3. Elbow 12 has at a slight distancefrom its end the annular swelling 18, the outer surface 'of which is inthe shape of a segment of a sphere, with 19 as center. Shrunk on orotherwise secured to its end is the ring 20,

the annular swelling 18, their engaging surfaces being complementary tothe spherical surface of 18, are held by" means of bolts 3 24 to flange25 which is integral with el bow 14.

The rings 20 and 21 are preferably made v of nickel or a nickel alloy.

I and 14 and the one between 13 and 15 are identical.

Passing through the stuffing box 27 is the screw 28, the part slidingthrough the stuffing box being smooth. -Its lower end is connected tothe band 29 by means of the links 30. The screw" 28 passes through thebevel gear 31, which is supported by washer 32 carried by brackets 33and 34. Bevel gear 31 engages with bevel gear 35, which is fixed to oneend of shaft 36, the other end having fixed to it bevel gear 37. This inturn meshes with gear 38 on shaft 39, the lower end of the latter havingthe hand wheel 40. The pointer 41 runs on a threaded portion of shaft 39and in its travel passes before the scale 42.

The action of the device will now be described. When steam from thesuperheater, delivered by pipe 5, reaches the regulator, it is split upinto a number of smaller streams which pass through the pipes 7 and arecollected again at the other end and delivered to pipe-1'7.

The turning of screw '28 by means of hand wheel 40 results in a. raisingor lowering of its lower end. By this means the regulator 6 can be swungabout axis 26-26. Its extreme lower position is indicated in full lines,while in Fig. 2' the extreme upper position is indicated in dottedlines. It will be .noted that in the former position the tubes of theregulator are entirely submerged, While in the latter case the entirestructure is above the water level. Any intermediate position can begiven the appa ratus at will.

When the apparatus is in its submerged position, the steam coming fromthe superheater will give up some of its heat, the amount given updepending principally on the relative temperatures of the superheatedsteam and the water, and on'the total surface of the tubes. The designof the apparatus will depend on these and other factors, but it may besaid generally that the temperature of the steam delivered can be keptbelow a given maximum temperature for a given boiler by designing theregulator appropriately.

At times when it is not desired to lower 1 the temperature of the steamso much, the

regulator can be set so it is only partly submerged. When no reductionwhatever in superheat is desired, the regulator is'given 216 positionindicated inthe dotted lines in ointer 41 will indicate on scale 42 justwhat position-the regulator is in.

It may seem at first glance as if my apparatus, even in the positionlast referred to, 2'. 6., raised to its' highest position, must resultin a loss of superheat, since the wet steam on the outside of tubes 7 isof lower temperature; but such is not the case. -It is true that someheat passes from the super heated steam to the wet steam, but the resultis that the latter is partly dried and 'is therefore delivered to thesuperheater in drier condition. This results in a higher degree of thesteam delivered by 17 constant, it will be clear that the regulator willhave to be shifted with the varying conditions of the fire, etc. Thiswould mean a constant manipulation of the hand Wheel 40. A most decidedeffect is further produced by the variations in the water level 2. .Asthis is fluctuating more or less rapidly in most cases, an automaticmeans for adjusting the position of the regulator is almostindispensable. The form I propose to use is shown diagrammatically inFig.4.

The screw 28 running through gear 31, the latter meshing with gear 35 onshaft 36 are as before described. Shaft 36 is rotated by motor 43 bymeans of the gears 44 and 45.

The motor 43 takes its current from the I mains 46 by the leads 47through the pole changer 48. This pole changer is held in open positionby means of the two springs 49 when neither of the twocoils 50 and 51has current flowing through it. With cur-' rent flowing through 50, thearmature 52 will be attracted toward it and motor 43 will run in onedirection. With current flowing through51, the pole changerwill make theopposite connection, and the motor will run in the opposite direction.

Coil 50 is in series with switch 66, line 53, battery 54, and the twoleads 55 which are fused into a mercury thermometer 60 of appropriatedesign leaving a gap between them.

Coil 51 is in series with line 56, switch 65, interrupter, 57 andbattery 54. The armature 62 of the interrupter57 is held in the positionagainst contact 63 by spring 64, closing circuit 56 'at all times whenno current flows through coil 59.

Coil 59 is in series with leads 58, and bat' [cry 54. These leads 58 arefused into the thcrmonieter also in such a way as to leave a gap betweentheir ends.

'Ihermometer 60 has its bulb in a'well 61, which is screwed into themain 1? delivering steam from the regulator.

The switch is so located and designed that when the screw 28 in itsupward travel reaches the highest desired point, the finger (37, carriedbythe upper end of the'screw 28, contacts with 65 and breaks its contactwith point 68. At the end of its desired dmvnward travel, 67 similarlymoves 66 out of contact with point 69. Springs return (35 and 6 to theircontact positions hen 67 does not engage them.

hen the temperature falls below the desired point, and contact at 58 isbroken, I have the following state of affairs: coil 50 has no currentflowing through it, as the circuit is open at 55; coil '59 has nocurrent through it, as the circuit is open at 58; spring 64 holdsarmature 62 against contact ('3, thus closing circuit 56; armature 52-will be drawn toward right, closing circuit 47 in such a way as to makemotor -13 run in the direction to raise the regulator out of the water.I

The temperature of the superheated steam will then begin to rise, andthe mercury in the thermometer will come up. However there will be acertain time-lag, and contact at 58 may not be established quicklyenough to keep the motor from running too long and doing damage. Toobviate this, the switch '65 was inserted. It will be opened'when theupper desired position of the regulator has been reached, and thus willbreak the circuit through coil 51. Pole changer 48 will thereupon assumeits open position and motor 43 will stop.

Similarly, when in its downward travel the regulator has reached theextreme lower position desired, finger 67 opens switch 66 and. thecircuit through coil 50 being interrupted, pole-changer 48 opens and themotor stops.

In Fig. 5 arrangement wherein two regulators are employed, each like theone described.

Steam from the super-heater comes through 5, part of it going throughregulator A and the other part through regulator B, leaving again bymains 17 and 17" respectively. T hetwo regulators are quite independentof each other, and may each be automatic in its action, as abovedescribed, or one may be automatic. and the other manually operated, orboth may be operated manually. It will be clear that the temperaturesof' the steam delivered into the two mains 17 and 17" may vary from eachother, and this is the purpose of this arrangement. Steam from one ofthe mains may be wanted is shown diagrammatically an for a purpose wherea high degree of superheat is desirable, while steam from the othern-ia-innmybe wanted for work where a lower degree of superheat isrequired. The two regulators can be set independently to give theseresults.

It will be obvious that even more than two regulators might be used ifdesired.

\Vhile I have in the above described the forms of my device which I nowprefer it will be evident that a number of variations may be introducedwithout departing from the spirit of my invention.

What I claim is 1. In a regulatorof the class dcscril'ied. thecombination of a pair of elbows in alinement, two other elbows connectedwith the. first pair by universal joints. two perforated platesconnected to the ends of the second pair of elbows, and a set of curvedtubes whose ends are secured in said plates.

2. In apparatus of the class described, the combination of two elbowseach with one end flared, a ring secured in each, of said flaring ends,the inner surfaces of said rings being segments of spheres, a secondpair of elbows, a ring secured on the outsideot each adjacent to oneend, the outer surfaces of said rings being complementary to andengaging respectively with the inner surfaces of the first named rings.means to-keep the two second named rings in engagement with the twofirst named rings, a. plate secured to each of the second pair ofelbows, tubes conthus formed being ina'linement' so-that the two pairsof rings lie parallel to each other.

3. In apparatus of the class described, the combination of two alinedelbows, a pipe to deliver steam to one and a second pipe to take steamfrom the other of them, steam carrying means connected to the two elbowsby universal joints the main portion of said means being offset withrespect to the line of the two'elbows, and mechanism "acting in responseto temperature conditions in .the second pipe to move said steamcarrying means about the line of the two elbows.

4. In apparatus of the class described. the combination of two alinedelbows, a pipe to deliver steam to one and another pipe to take steamfrom the other of them, steam carry- BENJAMIN BROIDO.

